Untitled Sermon (23)

Last week we started the theme of doctrine matters and this week we will continue with that theme. This is no light issue. This is fundamental the life of the Christian. This is absolute in the life of the Christian. We can not be so lean with biblical truth. I wanna begin what's this statement that most are familiar with from the Apostle Paul and at the same time most do not consider what Paul is actually saying.

1 cor 3:1-

1 Corinthians 3:1–2 NASB95

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able,

And the author of hebrews affirms this as well.

Hebrews 5:12-

Hebrews 5:12–14 NASB95

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

What both of these authors are communicating is that there was a time when as an infant you needed milk. That was a essential for you as a young Christian, and you can be 80 years old and still a young Christian, but that was essential for you as a young Christian in order for you to grow. But there comes a time when you have to begin to eat solid food. It's time to grow up, it's time to eat better stuff.

It is the perfect analogy to the Christian life as Christianity is life. And life must be fed. And if a parent keeps their infant on milk, never training their infant to eat solid foods, that infant will become malnourished and the parents will be guilty of neglect and child abuse.

So what is solid food? And what is milk? If you were to ask the average churchgoer today what is solid food, the typical answer would be bold preaching. And the typical understanding of bold preaching by most churchgoers is a loud preaching style that is unapologetic about the topic they are discussing.

Now I don't mean to make bold preaching sound negative. It is not my intention here. But it is negative that the average Christian would assume that is What solid food is. So let's look at this culturally.

I will begin with making the statement that evangelism should be simple. Not that evangelism is easy, but the message should be simple. Let the lost Sinner know that they are a Sinner in need of a savior.

That they are a Sinner who is guilty before our holy God and will face wrath on the day of judgment if they do not repent of their sins and trust upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

And many great evangelist preach such a simple message as they should. Of course I'm giving you the shorter version of what evangelist might preach. But for the most part it is a fairly simple message. And I think any pastor who is invited to speak at an event should have such a simple evangelical message.

However, The gathering of the Saints, what we call church, is not the place for a simple message. Church is where the word of God should be exercise. Church is the place or the word of God must be expound on. But typically, church is not the place where you will find something like that.

Now this is something that has been happening for a while. It goes before the days of Billy Graham but the early years of Billy Graham we can point to as the momentum point. The point in time where this attitude has gained momentum. Most of you know who Billy Graham is if not all of you.

Billy Graham was the dynamic evangelist who can sell out in arena with a simplistic gospel message. Another statement I do not mean to sound negative. The gospel must be simple when preaching 2 lost souls. This is the very job of the evangelist.

Billy Graham is not to blame. Because he is not the issue. The issue was all the people who envied him. All these pastors would sit and watch this great following when this man appeared.

And many pastors said I want what Billy Graham has. And if I want what Billy Graham has then I must do what Billy Graham does. So beginning in the 1940s, Again the attitude existed long before that, but beginning in the 1940s this attitude was gaining momentum.

And pastors were preaching the simple message rather than laboring over the word of God. And people liked it. People demanded it. Some pastors were not interested in that style I had so much pressure from the congregation but they conformed.

Why can't you preach like Billy Graham preaches. You know we would have more people here if you priest a lot more like Billy Graham. So the blame is not on Billy Graham , the blame is on those who envy him. And here we are around 70 years later and what we have is tradition rather than truth. We call this the traditional way of preaching.

We call it traditional Preaching because since the 1940s it has filled sanctuaries all across America, people were raised this way in continued with this style. It has gone so far that many congregations have required that their pastors be evangelist in the pulpit rather than a pastor who discerns the word of God.

And so what we have is a very simple message being produced and presented in churches all across the nation. And this has led Christians to stop thinking in compartments. Christians do not realize that there are compartments to their faith. Because we have been so used to milk. Billy Graham gave milk.

Because he was trying to reach the lost. But the Billy Graham crusades we're not meant to end with Billy Graham. This is why the Billy Graham crusades partnered with local churches to get those who were saved at a crusade involved with a local ministry. This is where the newly converted learns to eat solid food.

But that is not what happened, the newly converted went to a place where milk was served. So not only did Christians stop thinking in compartments but we never trained the future to think in compartments. What do I mean by that? Well, Salvation is Salvation. That's not how the Bible presents it, but that is the way we treat it.

Salvation has compartment. Justification And sanctification could fall under the subject of Salvation. But those are 2 different compartments. Justification and sanctification are not one in the same. But because most Christians were raised on milk they have blended the 2 things and called it one. Now you have a Christian who is confused on the doctrine of Salvation.

This is how we got to where we are. The goal here is not to make you feel bad if this is how you were raised and the goal here is not to critique the preachers before me. My goal, anywhere I go, is to train people on how to take in solid food.

And this is important because we're going to see some of those compartments in this one verse that we are covering today. So let's unpack that verse.

Romans

Romans 8:34 NASB95

who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

This is a difficult verse to translate. Which is why it probably looks so funny in your bibles. Or kind of doesn't really click when you read it. There are many verses like that in the pages of scripture. There are just some phrases in a different language that cannot be communicated in the English language.

Maybe you have spoken to a person who speaks another language and you ask them what that meant and they say well I can't really put it in English. Some phrases are just like that. Likewise there are some English phrases that we cannot put into another language. We would have to find a different way to get our point across. This is one of those verses.

Last week we covered justification and we discussed the battle we face as Christians. That we are under attack and under attack often but who will bring a charge against us. US meaning the Christians and the Christians alone. These verses cannot be applied to those who are not saved.

Please versus cannot be applied to those who are misled and think they are saved. This chapter can only be applied to those who actually are saved. And we now have the next question who is the one who condemns?

Do We remember how this Letter began? Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Who is the one who condemns? The answer is God. This chapter is a summary of what Paul has already stated. These verses that we are covering in this chapter are not anything new.

Justification was taught in great detail already long before we came to chapter 8. So the teaching of condemnation was also covered already. We also covered the substitutionary atonement. That Jesus was a substitute sacrifice for you and he made atonement for you.

This means that when Jesus went to the cross the condom nation that was meant for you was placed on to him. For those who have placed their trust in Jesus Christ their condemnation was placed on Jesus Christ.

Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because that was already answered for. But to understand the question we have to continue in this verse.

Christ Jesus is he who died. And paul is expecting the reader to fall back on what he has already explained.

Lets take a brief walk through.

Romans 3:21–26 NASB95

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:21-

Romans 5:1–2 NASB95

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

Romans 5:1

Romans 6:3-

Romans 6:3–11 NASB95

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

So we are not seeing anything new. It is Christ Jesus who died and took the condemnation for all who believe in him and for the all who do believe in him they too have also died in Jesus. And as Christians we have such a strong emphasis on the crucifixion of Jesus. And rightfully so. The crucifixion was essential for Salvation, the crucifixion is essential for Salvation.

When we discussed the substitutionary atonement, we're talking about Jesus facing our enemies In addition to taking our condemnation. Death is one of our enemies. And Jesus faced death and the curse of death but death cannot hold him. His blood was innocent.

So while it is important to proclaim the crucifixion of Jesus we must not stop there. And Paul is not stopping there he says rather who was raised. It looks kind of funny in the English but all it is is an emphasis. Think of it as a but wait there's more.

Christ Jesus is he who died , yes but wait there's more he was raised. The story does not end at his death. While Paul does not directly state it we are forced to see the ascension of Jesus in this text. Death cannot hold our Lord and he was raised from the dead. Any spent time with the disciples and there were many witnesses to his resurrection.

Any told the crowd that watched him ascend that he will always be with us. And then Angels appeared and announced but just like how he left he would return. The right now as Paul states it's, Jesus is at the right hand of God.

This is where he belongs , this is what Jesus prayed for in John chapter 17 when he asked to return to his former glory the glory that he shared with the father before the foundation of the world. Any signifies the finished work of Jesus. And in that same prayer, where he asked to return to his former glory, he announced that he has finished is task.

That he has finished his mission. And that was the very words that he uttered on the cross right before he gave his last breath. He said it is finished. And the image of Jesus sitting at the right hand of the father is an image have completed work. The work that Jesus did is absolute.

And it is finished. But Paul says that Jesus is doing something at the right hand of God. He is interceding for us Paul says who also intercedes for us. Now we are forced to think in compartment.

What we have here is a priest. See when we reduce the teachings of Jesus down, and when we reduce who Jesus is down, we miss some very essential things that are needed in our life. So you ask the average Christian who Jesus is. Out of the Christian you might get he is Lord, yeah savior, he is Lord and savior and perhaps you might get he is the son of God.

If you ask a secularist they might respond as the son of God. The secularist do recognize that we teach that Jesus is the son of God. Their understanding and our understanding are 2 separate things, but that is a response you might get from them. Another response you might get is he was a good man who taught us how to live.

But an answer that you might not get is that Jesus is profit, priest and King. Now for the sake of time I have to explain this briefly. We have discussed this in the past, but I won't be able to expand on everything that I want to expand on so please forgive my brevity.

In the Old Testament we see 3 offices for Israel. The first office we see is that of a prophet. Although the word prophet is not used, that is the first thing we see. Somebody who was given a word from God and had to go forth and proclaim that word. That is the office of the prophet.

Contrary to how it is taught today and how some people proclaim it today, profit is not some fortune teller. This comes from the elementary style of thinking, this comes from being stuck on milk and never eating solid food. People assume that prophet and prophecy is fortune telling because often what God would do is he would warn his people on what's to come should they not repent.

And people assume that it means to predict the future. So you will find people in charismatic circles who say things like I prophesied that they would have this ministry and they did. Or I prophesied that they would be healed of their sickness and they were. To be a prophet meant all you did let's go forth and proclaim the word that God has given you.

Guess what? I do that every Sunday. My job is to say thus sayth the Lord. Here is the word that God has given us. And that is what we seen with Abraham and with Jacob and Joseph and Moses all the way till we see the prophets of the Old Testament. The second office we see is that of a priest. The priest was the one who intercedes on behalf of the people.

The priest would cause a tonnant once a year on behalf of all the people through the blood of a sacrifice in the holy of holies. It would first do a sacrifice for himself so he would be pure and clean before he entered the temple the holy of holies. sacrificed another sacrifice this time on behalf of the people.

M place the blood on the mercy seat of God. The priest would ask for forgiveness of sins on behalf of the people and the people waited outside of the temple for the priest to walk out. If the priest walked out they knew that God has forgiven them.

The third office that we see in the Old Testament is that of a King. Israel demanded to have a King and if you remember the prophets objected. But God granted them a King and the first King that he granted them was King Saul.

King Saul was just a doorway , King Saul was just a stepping stone if you will. Because it was King David but the throne was really meant for. And the people had to serve their King and do what the King said .

because they were now a part of a Kingdom. This is not the same as a presidency. You didn't vote a man in and when you didn't like him anymore you voted for another person. Why David had to be on the throne was because of his bloodline was the bloodline that leads to the savior.

You have prophet, priest and King. And Jesus is the fulfillment of all of these offices. He is our high profits because he is the living word. When he speaks he speaks the things of God. He is our priest because he offered his own blood any intercede on our behalf offering forgiveness of sins.

And here's our King, who is a part of a real Kingdom. And we serve him as King he is our ruler and he is in charge. But the focus in verse 34 of Romans chapter 8 is on the office of priest. Now you can never truly appreciate the work of Jesus if you don't think in compartments.